Lyrl's recent activity

  1. Comment on Op Ed from UnitedHealth Group CEO: The US health care system is flawed. Let’s fix it. (gifted link) in ~society

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    The friction that get in the way of consumers or their representatives punishing medical providers for providing poor value are also substantial. Insurers and drug companies are not alone: medical...

    The friction that get in the way of consumers or their representatives punishing medical providers for providing poor value are also substantial. Insurers and drug companies are not alone: medical equipment manufacturers, urban hospitals, and many doctor specialities are also making out like bandits.

    1 vote
  2. Comment on A pregnant teenager died after trying to get care in three visits to Texas emergency rooms in ~society

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    Hypocritical he didn't include Virginia v. Loving, which invalidated laws against interracial marriage.

    Hypocritical he didn't include Virginia v. Loving, which invalidated laws against interracial marriage.

    7 votes
  3. Comment on Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of October 28 in ~news

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    The West doesn't want them because a)anti-immigrant bias is currently high, and b)some percentage would plan terrorist actions on allies of Israel. The calculus is that it is better for hundreds...

    The West doesn't want them because a)anti-immigrant bias is currently high, and b)some percentage would plan terrorist actions on allies of Israel. The calculus is that it is better for hundreds or thousands of potentially productive new residents to stay trapped in Gaza than for one terrorist to be allowed in, especially in the current climate where allowing any immigration from anywhere is politically difficult.

    The Arab countries don't want them because that would relieve pressure from Israel.

    Everybody sucks here.

    5 votes
  4. Comment on In Canada, Brantford-area child dies from rabies after contact with a bat, health official says in ~health

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    How much time you have depends on where you are bitten. A bite on a hand or foot means at least a month for the virus to propagate up the arm or leg nerves to the spine and then the brain. A...

    How much time you have depends on where you are bitten. A bite on a hand or foot means at least a month for the virus to propagate up the arm or leg nerves to the spine and then the brain. A shoulder or neck bite would give significantly less time to figure things out.

    2 votes
  5. Comment on Weight loss drugs appear to be having an effect at the population level in ~health

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    6% of Americans are currently on the drugs. The obesity rate dropped by 2%. That kind of drop is easily explained by the number of people on the drugs alone.

    6% of Americans are currently on the drugs. The obesity rate dropped by 2%. That kind of drop is easily explained by the number of people on the drugs alone.

    4 votes
  6. Comment on The US government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button in ~tech

    Lyrl
    Link
    They are starting an inquiry to consider starting the process to make it easier to unsubscribe. I mean, I am glad there is some movement, but any results sure feel far off.

    Efforts being rolled out Monday include a new Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether to impose requirements on communications companies that would make it as easy to cancel a subscription or service as it was to sign up for one.

    They are starting an inquiry to consider starting the process to make it easier to unsubscribe. I mean, I am glad there is some movement, but any results sure feel far off.

    15 votes
  7. Comment on Local Canadian news loses 58% of online engagement, thanks to the Online News Act in ~news

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    The article shows no proof of that 58% claim to start with, much less make an attempt to sort out how much is due to Meta's link ban vs. all the other factors that are driving down news site...

    The article shows no proof of that 58% claim to start with, much less make an attempt to sort out how much is due to Meta's link ban vs. all the other factors that are driving down news site traffic. Also:

    As shown in Figure 3, the volume of screenshots of
    Canadian news articles tripled in the four months
    immediately following the ban, generating such a large
    amount of engagement that, although there are fewer
    posts containing screenshots than there were posts with
    news links prior to the ban, engagement with news
    screenshots matched the previous engagement
    generated by news links.³

    2 votes
  8. Comment on What shampoo/conditioner do you use? in ~life.style

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    Dandruff is a fungal infection, and anti-dandruff shampoos have an anti-fungal that, not surprisingly as it is designed to kill a living organism, many people find irritating. Flaking scalp often...

    Dandruff is a fungal infection, and anti-dandruff shampoos have an anti-fungal that, not surprisingly as it is designed to kill a living organism, many people find irritating.

    Flaking scalp often results from dryness and irritation, without any fungal involvement at all, in which case dandruff shampoos won't help.

    4 votes
  9. Comment on A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee. Three methods strive to retain the bean's flavor while removing its caffeine. in ~food

    Lyrl
    Link
    I had known of the Swiss water and direct solvent processes, but the CO2 method and the indirect solvent method are new to me. Neat to learn some behind the scenes steps for delicious but less...

    I had known of the Swiss water and direct solvent processes, but the CO2 method and the indirect solvent method are new to me. Neat to learn some behind the scenes steps for delicious but less sleep-affecting brews!

    3 votes
  10. Comment on Six distinct types of depression identified in Stanford Medicine-led study in ~health.mental

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    PubMed is helpful. It doesn't get past the paywalls, but it turns up anything available without paywalls and at least shows the abstracts for everything. Sometimes local libraries subscribe to...

    PubMed is helpful. It doesn't get past the paywalls, but it turns up anything available without paywalls and at least shows the abstracts for everything. Sometimes local libraries subscribe to journals, with access at the library computers.

    5 votes
  11. Comment on Six distinct types of depression identified in Stanford Medicine-led study in ~health.mental

    Lyrl
    Link
    MRIs are a limited resource. To do regular scans in the number of people diagnosed with a common disorder like depression would require an enormous infrastructure and supply chain investment....

    In the not-too-distant future, a screening assessment for depression could include a quick brain scan to identify the best treatment.

    MRIs are a limited resource. To do regular scans in the number of people diagnosed with a common disorder like depression would require an enormous infrastructure and supply chain investment. Hopefully more research like this finds more easily tested biomarkers.

    One of the six biotypes uncovered in the study showed no noticeable brain activity differences in the imaged regions from the activity of people without depression. Williams believes they likely haven’t explored the full range of brain biology underlying this disorder...

    Or, you know, they might have a disorder other than depression. Dysautonomias like Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, for example, are typically misdiagnosed as depression and/or anxiety for 5-10 years before being correctly diagnosed. It would help so many people if medical professionals would consider that people diagnosed with depression and not responding to treatment might have been misdiagnosed.

    26 votes
  12. Comment on Houston has seen a gentle density revolution since the 1990s. Allowing neighborhoods to opt out of citywide reforms was crucial. in ~design

    Lyrl
    Link
    As the article says, most NIMBYs are only concerned about their neighborhood, not the whole city, and even within their neighborhood they are often a vocal minority. This was a really interesting...

    As the article says, most NIMBYs are only concerned about their neighborhood, not the whole city, and even within their neighborhood they are often a vocal minority. This was a really interesting case for the power of shifting the incentives for lobbying targets with small-local opt-outs with proof of majority ageeement, and with an expiration date.

    5 votes
  13. Comment on Viral illness throughout the household. What might be happening? in ~health

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    My understanding is viral load makes a huge difference. The person exposed to a room where they breathe in five hundred viruses an hour might need several hours of exposure to get sick, while the...

    My understanding is viral load makes a huge difference. The person exposed to a room where they breathe in five hundred viruses an hour might need several hours of exposure to get sick, while the person in a room breathing three thousand viruses an hour might get sick after just ten or fifteen minutes. And of course viral shedding by the sick person varies a lot, so some days they virus up the room air much more than other days.

    If climate allows, increased ventilation around the sick person or people (to reduce viral load in the air) would likely reduce these severity of illness in the exposed people.

    7 votes
  14. Comment on Hurting the right people in ~life

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    If you click the link in the post you replied to, they share they have Israeli relatives. It is more personal to them than to the average American wondering if the world is better or worse off...

    If you click the link in the post you replied to, they share they have Israeli relatives. It is more personal to them than to the average American wondering if the world is better or worse off because of how our government has distributed military and humanitarian aid.

    15 votes
  15. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~news

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    Hamas is the governing group in Gaza. They are the reasons whatever infrastructure and public services that exist under Israeli embargo get to the Palestinians in that area. Many Gaza people...

    Hamas is the governing group in Gaza. They are the reasons whatever infrastructure and public services that exist under Israeli embargo get to the Palestinians in that area. Many Gaza people support their violence, while others disagree with it but are so dependent on the system there's no viable way to change it.

    Gazan militants are embedded in civilization population areas and infrastructure - schools are a common place to launch rockets from, for example. They believe the only way to free Palestinians from the suffering under Israeli embargo is massive violence on civilians, "Sherman's march through Georgia was the only way to end the Civil War"-type belief. Whatever happens, a lot of civilians are going to die.

    8 votes
  16. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~news

    Lyrl
    Link Parent
    It's not like violence has ever stopped the atrocities, either. What the violence has done is help the international community fail to condemn what Israel does.

    It's not like violence has ever stopped the atrocities, either. What the violence has done is help the international community fail to condemn what Israel does.

    9 votes